Weygand, Maxime (mäksēm` vāgäN`), 1867–1965, French general, b. Belgium. A career army officer, he was (1914–23) chief of staff to Marshal Foch, and in 1920 he directed the defense of Warsaw against the Soviet army and turned the tide of the Russo-Polish War in favor of Poland. Weygand subsequently served France as high commissioner in Syria (1923–24), chief of the general staff, and commander in the Middle East (1939–40). In World War II he replaced (May, 1940) General Gamelin as supreme Allied commander, but he could not avert the fall of France. After the Franco-German armistice (June), Weygand served in the Vichy government as minister of defense, delegate general to French Africa, and governor-general of Algeria. Dismissed (1941) as delegate general and arrested (1942) as a hostage for Gen. Henri Giraud (who had gone over to the Allies), Weygand was held by the Germans until 1945. After his return to France he was accused of collaboration with Germany, but was exonerated in 1948.

Bibliography

See his memoirs, Recalled to Service (tr. 1952); study by P. C. F. Bankwitz (1967).

Weygand, Maxime

(born Jan. 21, 1867, Brussels, Belg.—died Jan. 28, 1965, Paris, France) Belgian-born French army officer. He was educated in France and taught at the French cavalry school. He served as chief of staff to Gen. Ferdinand Foch (1914–23), as high commissioner in Syria (1923–24), and as inspector general of the army (1931–35) before retiring in 1935. In May 1940 he was recalled to take command of the French armies; unable to prevent a German victory, he advised capitulation in June. After the Allied invasion of North Africa (1942) he sought to fly to Algiers but was caught by the Germans and imprisoned in an Austrian castle. Released by U.S. troops in 1945, he was arrested by the French under the orders of Charles de Gaulle. He was exonerated by de Gaulle in 1948.